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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22749280">namesake</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/anxiouspunk/pseuds/anxiouspunk'>anxiouspunk</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>MASH (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Family Feels, First work in fandom, Found Family, Gen, Light-Hearted, all the other characters are here too they’re just mentioned in passing, and WE ALL KNOW THIS, ever so slight, generally heart warming stuff, just a little piece on radar and hawkeye’s relationship, radar’s son would've been named after hawkeye and henry and potter, really more so on radar’s feelings and respect for hawkeye, slight angst, so it feels unnecessary to tag them</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-02-16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-02-16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-04-28 10:07:45</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,390</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22749280</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/anxiouspunk/pseuds/anxiouspunk</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>“oh. sure. so uh, what’s this ‘bout..?” </p><p>“well,” the uniformed man sighed, folding his arms “mrs. mcleod apparently came by the station with her son and was rantin’ something about how ben here gave her boy a black eye.” </p><p>“but that doesn’t – but I – but I don’t under –” radar sighs, adjusting the bill of his cap “can-can I ask him why?..”</p><p>the deputy just shrugged again, a simple ‘sure.’ radar looked to his son, the small frame that now was clear why it was so scuffed up. he’d been quiet up until this point.</p><p>ben finally glanced up through his long bangs, right up to his father through bright blues. whereas lilly had his brown eyes, his wife had blue eyes, so it’d make sense that ben had em. sometimes though, radar swears, when they’re shining and looking right at him as if he could read every piece of his heart they could be just like – </p><p>“he took simon’s crutches away.”</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Radar O'Reilly &amp; Benjamin Franklin "Hawkeye" Pierce</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>20</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>namesake</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Hi!</p><p>Newbie here. It's weird; I've written fanfic for a long time, and I've loved M*A*S*H for a long time, and while I've written some stuff, this is my first time posting anything! This was gunna be a much longer fic with chapters, focusing on our 4077 family way after the war and on their kids too potentially, but it didn't pan out that way. But I still had this one of Radar and I loved it so much, I just finished it off as a stand-alone. </p><p>Anyway, I adore Radar, and his relationship/hero worship/mentor &amp; protege, with Hawkeye. So I wrote a little something on it under the guise of years later with Radar's family :) Enjoy!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p class="western">radar liked that the farm was quiet.</p><p class="western">the o’reily farm was fortunate; they were perched at the very end of the dusty, lone <em>moore</em><span> road. not much of the bustle, whatever little ottumwa had, didn’t drift over this way. so now, he could enjoy the stillness of the rusted, red barn, listening in to the cows snort in their stalls and moo quietly. it was a vivid conversation; radar thought it might be over. either way, it was as low as it could be.</span></p><p class="western">
  <span>he felt like he’d had enough noise to last a life time. </span>
</p><p class="western">
  <span>there’d been nothing more therapeutic then stepping back into iowa’s green grass the second he landed. one could say that was stupid and grass was grass but radar knew differently. it struck him so hard he couldn’t move for ten minutes outside the airport, and he’d nearly missed his bus. his ma would’ve been real upset at that. he still remembers her in her poke-a-dot apron, hands still covered in flour from baking him his coming home blueberry pie, rushing from the porch to meet him as he pushed the farm gate open with shaking hands. his ma had been through a lot; losing his pop, raising a whole farm, raising him, and hardly ever once had he seen the tough boned sweet woman break into tears as bad as she had when she gripped him in her arms. even he cried. </span>
</p><p class="western"><span>and he hadn’t strayed from them ever since. not as he grew up to be older, like he is now. </span><span>not</span><span> as he married </span><span>the sweetest and prettiest girl in ottumwa who surprised him everyday that she chose him.</span><span> not as they’d had kids and he learned about loving something more then he could ever figure out. not as his ma grew older and older, her hair getting grayer and one strong bones growing more and more tired; she stays more to the house now, enjoys baking for the kids. </span><span>not</span> <span>as time rolled on and brought all it’s changes with it. </span></p><p class="western">
  <span>while he never personally strayed, he couldn’t say the same about his mind. he thought about them so much. too much. of course he wrote; he couldn’t ever imagine not talking to any of them and forgetting like it’d ever happened (and really, he did fret far too much that things would fall apart without him for a person a million safe miles away). his mind doesn’t let him forget either. </span>
</p><p class="western">
  <span>it was almost bittersweet he couldn’t be there when it ended. he had been in the back of the animal pen, a full bucket in hand to feed the pigs as they pressed their noses into his legs and squealed indignantly for their food. they liked radar the most ‘cause he always gave them extra. it came out his tiny, new portable radio he saved up nearly a month for, muffled by his pocket. he nearly couldn’t believe it, frozen as the usually monotone reporter renounced </span>
  <em>“I repeat, the peace talks have been reached! The korean war is over!”</em>
  <span> he dropped the bucket; slop flew all over the ground and his shoes and good overalls, wasting at least thirty bucks and causing an uproar from the pigs. he didn’t notice. he ran screaming from the barn straight to the house, fast as he possibly could go, tripping from the uneven dusty path and watery eyes, hollering </span>
  <em>“ma! ma turn on the radio! did you hear it?! ma! it’s over!” </em>
</p><p class="western">
  <span>he wasn’t there but he could imagine it. he saw klinger dancing around the office with joy and tossing all the papers radar usually had so neat up in the air because it didn’t matter no more. he could imagine all the nurses hugging each other. he pictured major winchester grinning his rare grin and opening for a hug for only just a minute or two before pushing them away and returning to his staunch state. he saw hawkeye run screaming through the camp, kissing any person he came across whether they be nurse or not. he felt his elation. </span>
</p><p class="western">
  <span>he was in his run-down, childhood kitchen with his smiling ma but he danced around and cheered like he was there. he celebrated for them. </span>
</p><p class="western">
  <span>but the end of the war caused everything to disband. it caused relationships to fade and break and for radar to stop writing letters now that his friends were not all in one place. he didn’t really hold it against any of them. perhaps once everyone was out, out of the dirt and blood and horror, no one really wanted to bring all of that into the safety of home once they got back. he corresponded with some of them; he kept regular letters with potter until his passing a couple years ago, a couple few from klinger, and he even sent a letter to the blake family. he’d done it the second he got home, the deepest sympathies and how much that fumbling fisherman meant to him. he got a lovely letter back from mrs. blake that he still has to this day. </span>
</p><p class="western">
  <span>he didn’t really hear from hawkeye. klinger eventually told him in a letter that he’d finally fallen off. hawkeye. </span>
  <em>cracked.</em>
  <span> he very well couldn’t believe it; the strongest one of them all, determined with his backwards wit to never fail, fell down. turns out he wasn’t cheering and buying rounds of drinks when the peace news broke – he was lost. klinger said he came out alright in the end, but radar still wasn’t sure if that’s really something you come out ‘alright’ of. he only hopes he’s still making it okay – and, he must’ve somehow found out radar was asking around about him, because a couple years ago he received a letter from maine, written in scribbled doctor’s print with it’s sarcasm leaking out with the ink, </span>
  <em>several little birdies have told me the 4077th’s resident ‘fink’ is snooping around for me. </em>
  <span>he was still practicing medicine, his passion, and kicking it in crabapple cove. and that’s all someone can ask for.</span>
</p><p class="western">
  <span>it seemed everyone turned out okay, to radar’s great relief.</span>
</p><p class="western">
  <span>now, there were whispers and frightening talks of vietnam. radar tried not to listen to them. he blocked them out and switched the news stations and tore away pieces of the paper. everyone said it was all just talk and nothing was set but just the idea of making the same mistake again was terrifying. he might not say it out loud, but he was scared. there were guys who proclaim they’d go back in a heartbeat; the ones who wore their purple hearts on their jackets every day and started every story with </span>
  <em>‘back in korea..’.</em>
  <span> the same ones that went to his high school, who he’d caught up with after the war, and when they’d shared stories, stomped him out by saying he never could know what it was like because he was in a medical unit. </span>
  <em>you don’t know how hard it is on the front lines. you don’t know what it’s like to be sunk three feet in mud for ten days or see blood come out the back of the guys head in front of you. </em>
  <span>they laughed; </span>
  <em>yeah, what’d you do all day? play checkers and shine your officers shoes? </em>
</p><p class="western">
  <em>you don’t know the real war. </em>
</p><p class="western">
  <span>radar never liked to argue but it got under his skin. he’d tried to brush them off and said he’d done his share, he saw the blood, he saw the injuries. one night he was upset enough to puff out his chest and angrily declare all the stories he could; </span>
  <em>the enemy came and the whole camp had to leave but I stayed back with our head doctor and nurse even when they infiltrated our camp. I helped our chaplin preform heart surgery on a guy on a jeep in the middle of a back road while under fire. I </em>
  <em>got lost from my unit after our bus broke down </em>
  <em>near enemy territory with no weapons and no way of getting out and </em>
  <em>made it back to them alive.</em>
</p><p class="western">
  <span>they still laughed. </span>
</p><p class="western">
  <span>he’d stormed away upset and wounded. he never wanted to use the horror of what happened for himself but a tiny, selfish part of him had hoped this would give him the respect he so very craved. that finally he’d stop being seen as “the little guy” and would get the salutes and applause of the battles he helped win overseas. </span>
</p><p class="western">
  <span>he might’ve gotten more upset and started something until he remembered wise words. wise, serious words of a usually not very serious doctor telling him he didn’t need to change himself, didn’t need the respect of some losers or jerks, for he was great as he was. and if anybody, including himself, couldn’t see that, then they’re the ones in a loss. </span>
</p><p class="western">
  <span>he had nothing to prove. he knew his worth and so did anyone who cared about him, including the wacky doctor.</span>
</p><p class="western">
  <span>and as he got older, he was able to grow into his shoes a bit more, so he knew who he was now. a father, a husband, a farmer, a son. a good guy. he was a good guy, that’d always been his saving grace. and he hopes he was teaching his kids the same thing, to be good.</span>
</p><p class="western">
  <span>and it was that day that maybe showed the labour of his efforts. he was out in the barn like he always was, getting some fresh milk from the cows, and running through all the other things he had to do today. the latch on the pig’s pen needed tightening, he still had to go collect the eggs from the chickens, and he might have to run into town to get some more –</span>
</p><p class="western">
  <span>he paused. straightened up in his stool, brow bunching. </span>
  <em>wait</em>
  <span>, </span>
  <em>lilly, and why was she cryin –</em>
</p><p class="western">“<span>daddy! daddy!!” </span></p><p class="western">
  <span>radar spun in his seat, peering out through the barn door to the voice. just in the distance, he could spot the small figure of a young girl no more then six. flowery summer dress on and long brown hair flying behind her, she was careening her way towards the barn.</span>
</p><p class="western">“<span>daddy!!” she yelled for him, stumbling in and skidding over the dusty, sandy floor, wide eyes locked in on him “daddy you have to come out here –”</span></p><p class="western">“<span>hey, lilly, what’s the matter what’s going on –”</span></p><p class="western">
  <span>she all but fell into his outstretched arms, nearly toppling him off his stool beside the cow he was currently </span>
  <span>milking</span>
  <span> who was mooing at the disruption. she was gripping onto his ratty jacket, and he could already see the globs of tears in the brown eyes. </span>
</p><p class="western">“<span>it’s ben daddy he didn’t mean to hurt anyone he didn’t mean to –”</span></p><p class="western">“<span>ben? hurt who? what happened?” </span></p><p class="western">“<span>it was ralph daddy, ralph mcleod, we were playin’ out by the creek by his house, me and him and ben and the rest of them, we were just tryin’ to find tadpoles but then ralph started somethin’ and now ben’s in trouble for it –”</span></p><p class="western">“<span>lill, slow down, it’s okay,” he placed his hands gently over the arms of his rambling daughter, rubbing her shoulders “here, you’re gunna scare bessy here okay, just calm down –”</span></p><p class="western">“<span>but ben’s in trouble daddy!! it’s not fair! ralph’s ma got all mad when she saw what happened and went and told the deputy because his daddy knows him and then the deputy took ben and he’s bringing him here to tell you he’s in trouble but it’s not his </span><em>fault </em><span>daddy it was ralph –”</span></p><p class="western">
  <span>a car engine sputter. lilly gasped. radar furrowed, getting up from his chair. no one drives by the farm really, unless he was expecting someone, and his wife had gone to into town and wouldn’t be back till tonight. </span>
</p><p class="western">“<span>it’s him! it’s the deputy!” </span></p><p class="western">“<span>hey, lilly, it’s okay.” radar slipped his hand down and took her little one in his, giving her his best smile “I’ll go and see what he says, I’m sure it won’t be too bad once we talk, okay? here, bessy, you stay right here okay? I’ll be right back.” </span></p><p class="western">
  <span>he patted the cow on the neck, who only let out a gentle snort in response. she was already tied up to the post, and radar knew the old lady hadn’t anywhere else she wanted to go. lilly also patted bessy carefully when leaving, whispering a </span>
  <em>bye bessy, </em>
  <span>making radar smile. she also loves to talk to the animals; when he comes down to feed the chickens or the pigs, lilly will often follow him, and tell them stories as he feeds, or even reads the newspapers to them. she loves them as he did.</span>
</p><p class="western">
  <span>radar and his daughter walked out the barn, and up towards to the front of the house – and surely, there was the deputy’s beat-up truck, and the deputy, walking up to the fence. and, at his waist, the dark haired and scruffy little boy lilly called a brother. </span>
  <span>radar</span>
  <span> instructed lilly to stay here, on the safety of the porch, kissing her head as she sniveled over her twin’s fate. she was a sensitive girl, clearly.</span>
</p><p class="western">
  <span>radar called to the deputy, let him know he was here. he actually knew the guy; jerry </span>
  <span>richards.</span>
  <span> he was in his graduating class, and they used to play together sometimes as kids because jerry’s grandparents owned a farm up the road before they passed, kinda serious but pretty good guy. after, he squared himself up and walked down, eager to hear what his son who never said boo had gotten into.</span>
</p><p class="western">“<span>uh, hi, afternoon, jer-sir..” radar awkwardly greets as he reaches the </span><span>fence and pulled back the gate,</span><span> never sure if he should call the man by his name or not “can-can I help you?..”</span></p><p class="western">“<span>yeah.” he glanced down to the kid at his side “I got um..one ben sherman-henry o’reily? I’m assumin’ he’s yours?..” </span></p><p class="western">“<span>yeah, uh, he-he is..” radar reached out, ushering ben over to him “how’d..how’d you uh..” </span></p><p class="western">
  <span>the deputy, or jerry, shrugged. </span>
</p><p class="western">“<span>ask your boy – that’s the name he gave me when I asked.” </span></p><p class="western">
  <span>radar glanced down at his son, dirty knuckles and bruise just along the swoop of his cheek. he’d told him lots about his name. as much as he could know for eight years old. so much, that ben took real pride in announcing it to anyone who asked. </span>
</p><p class="western">“<span>oh. sure. so uh, what’s this ‘bout..?” </span></p><p class="western">“<span>well,” the uniformed man sighed, folding his arms “mrs. mcleod apparently came by the station with her son and was rantin’ something about how ben here gave her boy a black eye.” </span></p><p class="western">
  <span>radar’s eyes widened. that can’t be right. ben was the quietest, gentlest kid you ever crossed. so much that him and </span>
  <span>his wife</span>
  <span> were </span>
  <span>genuinely</span>
  <span> worried when he wasn’t starting to talk. school teachers gush about how polite he is and that he always helps after to put the toys away. he likes to spend his time reading and, along with lilly, picks up worms after it rains so they don’t get stepped on.</span>
</p><p class="western">“<span>but that doesn’t – but I – but I don’t under –” radar sighs, adjusting the bill of his cap “can-can I ask him why?..”</span></p><p class="western">
  <span>the deputy just shrugged again, a </span>
  <span>simple</span>
  <span> ‘sure.’ radar looked to his son, the small frame that now was clear why it was so scuffed up. he’d been quiet up until this point.</span>
</p><p class="western">
  <span>ben finally glanced up through his long bangs, right up to his father through bright blues. whereas lilly had his brown eyes, </span>
  <span>his wife</span>
  <span> had blue eyes, so it’d make sense that ben had em. sometimes though, radar swears, when they’re shining and looking right at him as if he could read every piece of his heart they could be just like – </span>
</p><p class="western">“<span>he took simon’s crutches away.” </span></p><p class="western">
  <span>radar blinked back. he must mean the simon that belonged to the goodman family. he knew em’; nice folk and simon’s dad managed the local grocers and the kids often played together. their poor simon was born with a dead leg; he had no ability to use it, so he’d been on crutches since he was upright. it wasn’t much of a big deal if you knew simon and his family, but that didn’t stop him from occasionally getting flak from other kids. radar could emphasize with that. he knew what is was liked to be picked on as the little guy.</span>
</p><p class="western">“<span>..who did ben?” he finally asked. </span></p><p class="western">“<span>ralph.” ben pushed up the hair flopping into his eyes, trying to meet his dad head on “he took em’ away. he thought it’d be a funny joke, trying to make simon walk without em’ so he could laugh.” </span></p><p class="western">“<span>he did?..” </span></p><p class="western">“<span>I told him to stop, give them back, but he wouldn’t. I tried to take em out of his hands, but ralph pushed me back and said </span><em>what’re you gunna do about it</em><span> – so I left hooked im’, so he’d give them back.” </span></p><p class="western">“<span>huh...” </span></p><p class="western">“<span>..I couldn’t let him do it pa.” ben admitted, quieter.</span></p><p class="western">
  <span>radar was doing everything to be a good parent here, for his kid and maybe so he didn’t look worse then he possibly already did in front </span>
  <span>of the law,</span>
  <span> but he couldn’t help it, a grin pulling around his lips. of course that was the reason. but then he saw jerry furrow his brow at him so he quickly wiped it off. </span>
</p><p class="western">“<span>well, uh..I see..um..” not sure where to go from there, he reached forward, placing a hand on his arm “ben, why don’t you go inside huh? go and see your grandma, okay?”</span></p><p class="western">
  <span>ben nodded with an ‘okay pa..’, pushing </span>
  <span>the creaking gate all the way back </span>
  <span>and walking up to the house. radar </span>
  <span>faintly</span>
  <span> heard lilly’s urgent voice as she climbed all over him, both slipping inside. </span>
</p><p class="western">
  <span>radar looked back to his old friend. he took in a breath, trying to match the serious aura and uniform that demands respect. he wasn’t gonna let ben take the fall for it, now that he understood what happened.</span>
</p><p class="western">“<em>look, </em><span>I, uh, I know he shouldn’t have hit a kid, but honest, really, what that other kid was doing was way worse and ben only wanted to help –”</span></p><p class="western">“<span>look, walter,” suddenly he lost his authoritative appearance, clasping radar on the arm “I don’t really think the kids’ in trouble. me and the other guys, honestly, we couldn’t care less. emily just came into the station and demanded I do somethin’ because one time jack helped me when my chevy broke down on the road, and she thought I owed them or something. but if I’m honest, their kid is kind of a shit and I agree with yours – mostly, anyway.” </span></p><p class="western">“<span>oh.” radar metaphorically stepped back, realizing his speech was no longer necessary “honest?..”</span></p><p class="western">“<span>yeah. I’ll just tell them that I gave ben a stern talking to and you and me made sure he won’t do it again, that kinda stuff, they don’t need to know.” </span></p><p class="western">“<span>oh. gee, thanks jerry, I really appreciate that.” radar dared enough to let out a smile, shaking the man’s hand “and uh, I’ll talk to him too..” </span></p><p class="western">“<span>no worries.” jerry said, scribbling something down in his pad of paper “you know, my wife, she works down at the school house, and she tells me all about those kids, and she’s seen your kid around too.”</span></p><p class="western">“<span>yeah?” </span></p><p class="western">“<span>yeah; thinks he’s real sweet. and from what I can see too, he’s a real quiet, good kid..” he leans by radar slightly, looking to </span><span>the windows of the house</span><span>, smiling a bit “seems he’s a real chip off the ol’ block that way, but then there’s the fighten’..” </span></p><p class="western">
  <span>radar turned away to the house. from the window, he could see his ma hovering over his son, an ice-pack to his cheek and a hand smoothing up his arm. but ben didn’t wince or cry. he was smiling up at his grandma. </span>
</p><p class="western">
  <span>he’ll ask radar later on, </span>
  <em>you mad at me pop..?</em>
  <span> and radar will have to have a talk with him about starting fights. and then he’ll ask his ma to bake an extra patch of peanut butter cookies for him. </span>
  <em> no, I’m not mad son. you did good.</em>
</p><p class="western">“<span>yeah..” radar smiles to himself, not really listening “he’s a real chip off the ol’ block..” </span></p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Hope that was good for you! Kudos/comments are encouraged, if not downright begged for. And if you want, you can find me screaming into tumblr's blue void @paris-geller-was-straightwashed.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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